Oil painting of buckskin horse. ACEO size. Posted on ebay tonight.
It's interesting to me, how the light can change as the sun progresses across the sky. If you compare this painting, to other buckskin horses I've painted, you can see she seems kind of washed out of color. This painting is of the hottest part of the day when the heat of the sun is sapping all color from the objects it hits. You can almost feel the sizzling heat as it's been around 100 degrees here for days.

I started this painting at $9.99 on ebay and Baby Face is in the ebay store for $35.

I have four cards selling at this moment. If you want one, don't be afraid to jump in and bid! There are some of the same people who bid on nearly every card I create. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right when the same person returns to purchase art from me again and again.

My thanks go out to them for they're keeping me going! It's nice to have some encouragement when you're working hard to create a worthy product.
donna

Horse art painting of mare with foal.
"Baby Face"
Using a limited palette of three colors is giving me more freedom to paint as I've always wanted to paint than I can possibly imagine. If I'd known this was the secret to wanting to paint like I've always dreamed of painting, I would have tried this long ago!

I'm using French Ultramarine Blue, Vermillion and Yellow Ochre. Plus white. I guess I can throw out the rest of my paints because I don't feel like I want them any more.

And the results I'm getting are stupendous to me. I feel like a real artist for the first time in all my years of painting! Isn't that crazy?

They always say KISS Keep it simple stupid. Well, I should have listened to that advice sooner! I can't wait to try this out on a very large painting!
donna

Colored Pencil painting of a horse in the moonlight.
"Moonlight Sonata"
I came to my studio this morning and buried under piles of other paper was this drawing I had done of a horse standing like this. I didn't remember when I had drawn him, or what I was going to do with him, so I put him on an ACEO Card.

This is on suede matboard so it has that "fuzzy" look to it. I love the effects of the suede and colored pencil, it's a soft look with no hard edges.
For your convenience, this card can be purchased for $15, (includes shipping), with the paypal buttons below.

Draft horse painting, colored pencil on suede mat board.

Clydesdale in the Evening Light
These are my favorite images to do. I love backlit subjects. The hairy feet on this horse make him the perfect subject for this kind of painting. Each fluffy foot makes it's own glow.
donna

Original colored pencil on suede board. Horse peeking out the window.

I call this the Blue Windowsill because .... I don't know what else to call it!
donna

Colored Pencil painting of a Leopard Appaloosa on suede board.
Talk about a struggle. It wasn't the horse, it wasn't the spots, it wasn't the light....it was the colored pencil! AAAGGGGHHH!

I don't think I'm a cp artist although I know so many people who love them. So what is wrong with me?

I think it's because I'm a slap and go painter. If I make a mistake, I like to be able to cover it up. With this stuff, you make a mistake and it's there forever for everyone to see. No paint layers to hide it....

This horse was maybe 14 hands and cuter than the dickens. I suppose he's a much loved child's pony. I could have put him in my pocket and taken him home with me. We were driving a couple miles west of Great Falls with our grandchildren when I yelled, "Stop! Let's take pictures of that horse!" He was way out in the pasture.

By the time we got stopped, he was at the fence, begging to be petted so it was hard to get good pictures of him looking natural. The kids loved him. And he loved the kids....
donna

"Close to Heaven"
ACEO acyrlic painting of the Rocky Mountain Front. This will be for sale on my website and in my ebay store for $35.
Donna

Oil painting of five different colored horses, on one ACEO card.

I'm calling this, Leopard in the Background. If you look, you'll see a black horse, a buckskin horse, a bay horse, a sorrel horse and a leopard Appaloosa too!

It was a challenge to put all those horses in one little card that's only 2.5X3.5 inches in size.
donna

Oil painting of Belgian Draft Horse, ACEO
It didn't take much to finish this horse this morning and it's a good thing as I'm still kind of sleepy. I figured I'd better get up and start painting though or I'll lose some more time today.

My trusty coffee is by my side. If I can keep from dipping my paint brush in it, it's going to get me going.
donna

Belgian Draft Horse with a long mane. Oil painting, ACEO card.
I wanted to do a painting with very few or small value changes. I haven't worked on this very long as we were playing with our grandchildren today.

We had a great day with the kids so you're seeing a half finished painting here. I'll tone down the light spots between his front legs, and blend in some of the shadowed areas.

It's hard to believe but this Belgian really did have this long beautiful mane.
Hopefully, I'll finish this and a few more tomorrow.

I'd like to seriously thank those of you who collect my work. And hope the paintings bring you joy for a long time to come. Three collectors bought five paintings today and I had a serious inquiry for another sale. I paint because I love to paint, but the reinforcement of sales gives me a great boost of encouragement that I'm not painting for myself alone.
donna

Sport Horse baby, Oil Painting, ACEO card.
I was desparately trying to get an art card finished before we have to leave for therapy today. We're supposed to be there at 9 am. I hate therapy days. I think this is the last one for a while.

This little foal was bred to become a sport horse. Look at the bone in those legs! He's just like a little bull dog. I think he could become a rope horse or a jumper either one. I liked all the colors in his coat. He reminded me of Dolly Parton's song, "Coat of Many Colors".

I could easily and happily sit here and do some more painting but I suppose I'd better get ready for town. I hate towns. Give me the mountains any old day.
donna

Oil Painting ACEO of a Gypsy Vanner's eye.
"Eye of the Gypsy"

I like the looks of these horses but I don't have a picture of one, so I had to make it up as I went along.

I'm about to go watch some television...it's really hot here, close to 100 and the studio is warming up drastically in spite of the swamp cooler's efforts.
donna

Quarter horse colts with mare.
Here's an oil painting, ACEO size, once again. I sure keep making the ACEO's. I don't know why but I'm hooked on them. I'm still using the limited palette on these.

Someone needs to examine my head for trying this one, can you imagine three horses on one little painting 2.5X3.5 inches big? The ears on these foals are so small, they're just dots.

I've about had it with trying to fit so much onto a card. I think I'll go paint something larger!
donna

Oil Painting ACEO of two Quarter Horse foals.

"They Say We Look Like Twins!"

Another painting using a limited palette method of three colors and white. Ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, and vermillion red. When I showed these paintings to Robert, he said, "Wow, they look so natural."

I guess that's a good thing unless you want to paint "unnatural". Sometimes I like to paint the world the way I like it to be in my imagination, instead of the way it is. But .... on the other hand, I do like the way these paintings are turning out. I call them my "mute" paintings. They're very quiet compared to my other paintings. They could also be called nature paintings as they mimic the colors and values of nature itself.

I have cousins who are twins, they weren't identical twins, but they did look almost exactly alike. Someone was always telling them, you look like twins! So when I saw these two colts in the pasture, looking so much alike, I had to paint them.
donna

I almost finished this horse tonight but then Brooks and Dun came on the country music awards so I had to come watch television. I'm listening to them right now. I love the song they wrote, Mama's got her red dress on. It's a great song. They have several I love.

While I'm on the subject of music, I'm really crazy about John Anderson, Charlie Pride, Hank Williams, Sr. not Jr. Forget him, I don't even think he can sing. Dwight Yoakum...now he can sing. You can tell I like country!

Back to this painting of a horse, I'll probably finish it in the morning. I need to smooth out a few rough spots and do some blending here and there.
donna

Buckskin Horse Oil Painting
Here's a buckskin mare in a field of flowers. I'm back to oil painting, which is my very favorite thing to do of course.

We found this mare close to Dupuyer, Mt. She had a foal with her, I painted them together in a previous post. This time, she's by herself and you can pretend she's a different horse!
donna

Painting of Buckskin horse with flowers.

This was an experiment to create painting using a muted palette. It was fun . I might have the dark colors to dark, but the legs on the horse are black so maybe it reads right. She's on a sagebrush pasture in Montana, near Dupuyer. I might add a little touch of light to the high spot over her eye as I think it should be showing some bright color too. I'm not sure about that yet. The flowers were really fun to do. Little doinks of paint here and there.

This is the size of an ACEO card, but it's got more detail than most of the cards. It's more like a miniature painting.
Donna

"I'm Gonna Be Somebody, Some Day!"
A painting of a foal who thinks he's going to amount to something! Nice little Arabian horse ACEO size, oil painting. I used two colors and white to create this. Dioxadine Purple, and Naples yellow. They create a nice soft grey to bounce the brighter and darker colors off of. I know, you aren't supposed to end a sentence with of but I can't think of any other way to say what I want to say.

I was sitting at my painting desk in my studio and the song with the same name as this painting kept running through my mind. It must have been playing on the radio when I woke up. As I picked up my brushes, I started painting this little foal and his mom. It was so much fun when I saw this sassy little look come over his face.

The brush I used for this painting was tiny, like it had two hairs in it. I take my glasses off, I put my glasses back on. I lean way down close to the table and almost get my nose in the paint, then I can see to know what I'm doing. Wish I had eyes like I did when I was younger. I could see up close without my glasses. Now I'm at a point where I almost need another pair of glasses! I have two all ready, one for distance and one for the computer.

Since this painting is oils, and really juicy paint, I think it might take a week or more to dry so it won't be posted on ebay for a while.
donna

Well, what can I say about this painting? I'm still working on it. I need to wipe out the horse's front legs. I'll lengthen the leg from the elbow to the knee. A friend of mine gave me some advice. I didn't even realize I had the shadow of this horse creating a form on top of the ground. How dumb. I'll add some "air" to his tail too.

Hope I get this painting finished tonight.

This kind of reminds me of my fire horse painting. I made it because people talk of some horse's as being a "living flame". Maybe I'll find a jpg of it and post it too.
donna

Pastel painting of miniature horse.
I thought this painting was a total flop but my friends at the Equine Art Guild said it wasn't, so I'll post it. I know they know what they're talking about! :) Maybe I can see something in it after all myself. I'd worked and overworked it so many times, I couldn't see anything good about it. He's posted for sale on ebay and you can find the auction by clicking the link to my ebay store at your right. It had a broken link but I fixed it last night.
donna

I painted a big dark shape across the bottom and had to erase it. It looked horrible. I don't want my horse to look grounded, I want it to seem like he's flying low. I had to put the sock into action and clean the board back to white gesso.

The forms of the paint are taking shape in the background. I like the colors of red and orange like this. They resemble the energy of fire. They're also hot colors that set off the cool colors of the horse.
donna

I'm getting some background on the painting of this horse. In my mind, I guess, I'm sending the paint in directions the horse has gone and directions he might take. When his front legs come down to earth, he might spring toward you. He might go straight. He might be going higher...Hopefully the lines will give you those feelings of where his energy will burst out next.

I can't believe it's so much fun to do paintings of horses. You can paint them in a realistic way, with an abstract background. Like this painting is. Or you can take the form of the horse, and turn it into abstract shapes and colors. You can set the horse in your painting into a natural setting, or you can do like Steve Martin and let him be a wild and crazy guy.

The possibilities are endless....

In this update for this painting, I've added some naples yellow to the medium toned places on this horse. I'm not sure if I'll leave him like this, or if I'll add some highlights later on. I still have no plan for this painting. It's a little bit like getting on a horse with no bridle, you let them take you somewhere.
donna

More on the painting of this horse. I've lengthened his legs, and added some yellow to the background. The only plan I have at this point, the horse is purple, so I must need some yellow on this thing somewhere. I'm not one of those painters who plan ahead. I play with the paint and the subject. It's so much fun. ;)

The way the yellow is smeared onto the board is giving me ideas about how the background might begin to look.
donna

The horse in this oil painting now has four legs, a mane and a tail. He's ready to rock and roll! I've been adding shadows, for hints of the muscles that move when a horse is in this bucking position. I love the way his mane is flying staight up. I'm still painting with dioxadine purple and turpentine. You can see from the smears, I have to erase things sometimes. It's not hard with the sock. When one sock wears out or gets to full of paint, I throw it out and grab another. I seem to have lots of them.

You have to be careful where you put these old socks loaded with turpentine and oil paint. They could catch fire by combustion so easily. I don't let them pile up anywhere.
Donna

Oil painting of a horse, work in progress. "All Four off the Floor".
I now have legs and a shadow under Doc. He doesn't have any eye yet and his shape is probably off. I'm drawing him with dioxadine purple right on the masonite board. This painting is 29X19. A lot bigger than the aceo cards I've been doing. It feels good to get bigger and slap the paint around. I'm using my largest brushes. I use turpentine dipped in an old sock to erase if I need to.
donna

Here's the beginning of another horse painting. I'm going to call this oil painting, "All Four off the Floor". You'll see why in the next installment, when I get the legs on this bouncy critter.

My subject for this painting, is my friend, Juliet's horse Doc. Once again, I'm painting him! I'm not actually painting him, so much as I'm trying to paint the feeling of energy and the forces that move when a horse is feeling so good and having so much fun.

This painting is for pure fun and what you might call "self expression".
donna

I have been frantically trying to finish this Percheron draft horse painting and get it uploaded before we have to leave for town. I know the entire day is going to be spent fighting with medical people, digging for records, remembering everthing, scheduling more appointments, trying to figure out why we can't get prescriptions as needed, doing the whole work comp thing.

It doesn't pay to get seriosly hurt on the job, that's for sure. It turns your life into a nightmare. Not that it doesn't happen to everyone who has to deal with medical issues.

I could sit here at home forever, painting away and everytime I get interrupted, I go nuts. I've spent my entire life trying to get to the point where I could work at this professionally and spend the time that's needed to be able to make my paintings "turn out" when I do them.

Gave it all up for a stupid husband for 30 years. Find the love of my life and he gets hurt. That's life, nothing is ever perfect. But why am I complaining, life is perfect! It's the only chance I have to go around on this world and I'll make the most of it. If I say it's perfect and believe it, it is. We make our own reality after all. If your attitude is right, your whole life is right.

So now that I have all that straight, here's the almost finished painting. As I was writing, I could see parts of it on the screen and once again, saw some things that need fine tuning.

Now if I don't go, we'll be late.
donna

You can see, I'm still working on this. It's coming along but it has problems. Like the shoulder is sticking out at you like a huge lump. Like it doesn't even belong to the horse. The mane is still a sad puppy of a mane. So now I know, instead of a few careful strokes of color here or there, I'm working away on this one like I do all of them. It's never easy.

Each painting seems to have it's own special "formula" and I haven't found it yet for this one. So now I begin the process of trying one thing, having it not work, trying something else, having that not work and then trying something else and finally I'll say to myself, "Gosh, why didn't I know that was what this needed?" and it will look just right to me.

But for now, I have to get ready to go to town. Robert has therapy today. I'll go help my aunt with her computer. She's in her middle eighties and decided to get a computer so she could write a book. She has most of it figured out but there are times when she likes a little help so she doesn't have to spend so much time trying to figure out what she needs to do next.

I hope I'm still learning new things when I'm past 80. I wonder what kind of new device they'll have then or what computers will be like? It's going to be fun to see.
donna

I think if I'm careful, I can finish this painting in a few careful strokes of pastel. I hope I don't over work it. It's two black percherons, in strong sunlight. I want to keep the feeling of togetherness they have. You can tell from their closeness, they're team mates.

I had to clean house today so I didn't get a lot of painting done. Robert's son came to visit us yesterday. After years of telling kids, clean up your rooms, it's real embarrasing to have them come to visit you and catch you in a big mess. :( Actually the son didn't care, but we did.

Such is the life of an artist, I don't spend a lot of time working on the house, but I do like to keep the mess down to a dull roar. It does cut down on painting time in a day though.
donna
ps, I'll post this as it goes along.

Here's a little prancer for you. He's a Pintabian foal, hurrying to catch up to his mom!

"Long Legs, Might Short Grass"

I love spring time when the new foals are trying to get their first tastes of new grass. It's so good they turn into contortionists trying to get some. This little guy is all scrunched up in the hot summer sun, enjoying his life. Donna

"Battle of the Sexes"
The ram doesn't like the ewe laying so close to him, either that, or he came and laid down so close to her, he almost pushed her over and he's waiting to see what she's going to do about it. She has a real determined look on her face doesn't she? He almost has a twinkle in his eye.

I don't know who's going to win....
donna

"A Kind Eye"
This is the eye of a black horse. I don't think I'm quite finished with it, I might make some changes. I think they'll be minor.

We have to spend tomorrow in town, seeing doctors and official people. The kind of day we hate. I can't wait to get it all over with so I can be home, painting again.
donna

"Her Ears Are Up"
I liked the way the evening light was playing around this horse's ears. At one point, I had to go out and see Class so I could tell just how to make them. Her ears are just like these in this picture. It's on ebay right now under seller name jackmorgan. It's also on the front page of my website.
donna

I think it's finished. I like the way her eye turned out looking so wet and shiny. I don't know how I did that! Actually, I do know how I did it. I blew the photo up on my computer screen until it was really large and every detail showed. I then placed each detail on this eye, as exactly as it was in the photo. At the same time, I don't think you could say this is a photorealistic work. I don't like capturing details that much. I try to make my paintings contain every important element, then I try to lose every single thing that isn't that important.
donna

Of course I couldn't stand it, I had to work on this some more. Now I have a big smear of blue way up there, to get rid of. The shapes above her eye are not right yet. I suppose if I don't stop, I'll ruin this and have to start again. I better wait until morning.
donna

I'll be working on the shape of the bone above her eye. I've elongated everything. I might do that tomorrow. Sometimes, I need a few hours to look at something when it gets nearly finished. I always know I could totally ruin this with overworking it. It's getting so close, I'll be finishing it up in little baby steps.
donna

I forgot to mention, if this should become a real painting, it will be part of a show on the Equine Art Guild website. There are two members who have horses the rest of us love to do paintings of. One is Monster, the other is a horse named Doc. Within the Guild itself, we're calling this the Doc and Monster show. I think it has a fancier more official title and you'll see it when it's online this fall. Those of us who enter the show are choosing different photos of Doc and Monster to work from. We want to see what kind of works we'll all create using the same two horses for the entire show. I think it's an interesting idea and lots of fun for us to work on. Gives us a reason to paint, as if we need it. ha.
donna

I've added some nice shadow colors to this. Since most of the painting is orangey brown colors, I have to get some purpley blues in there to set it off. I spent a lot of time working on the actual eye. I've also spent a lot of time studying exactly which way each hair goes. I've laid in the strokes of hair as they grow as I don't want them to look funny.

In this painting, Monster was standing beside a white gate, I think, and it's reflected in her eyes. It's very interesting to me, the top rail of the gate, is forming the brightest highlight in her eye. I haven't made that adjustment yet. I'm working on knocking the lower rails of the fence back so the top rail will be the lightest and brightest point in the entire painting. It will also be right next to the very very darkest part of this painting. That is what helps to create a center of interest. It's an area of high contrast.

There's a design of a weird ropey x going on over the top of her eye that I don't like. I hope when I get the pattern of the hair going over those highlights, it won't be so obvious. If it needs it, I'll go in and break up that shape. That space won't be as important as her actual eye so if I have to fake something off up there to create a better design, I'll do it.
donna

At this stage, I have to keep telling myself, just keep trying, it might turn into something yet. It's a scary stage to be in when a painting looks like this. You can put it aside and give up because nothing is happening, or you can dig in and keep pushing toward some kind of optimistic goal. I'm choosing to push on this time so you'll see another installment soon.
donna

You've guessed it, it's another WIP. I didn't say WIMP although this might become a wimpy WIP. You never know. I haven't begun to finish this painting yet, so I have no idea how it's going to turn out. I don't think I should publish these until I know I have a painting.

But....if you see a flop now and then, and you're someone who's beginning to paint, you'll know they don't always turn out, no matter how high our expectations are in the beginning!
donna

"Monster's Eye"
Here comes a strange one! This is my beginning drawing on purple suede mat board. I'm going to work on this portrait of a horse named Monster. I'm just doing her eye as I love painting horse's eyes. It's going to be interesting to see if I can make this look like anything special as she's a really gorgeous horse. She looks just like my Class so she has to be gorgeous!
donna

"Copper Dust"
This is a magic horse. When he swishes his tail, he fills the air with magic dust that brings good luck and good fortune to everyone who touches it.

Don't you just wish.....
donna

"New Foal"
He's so new, he hasn't got it figured out, how to walk yet. He isn't sure which leg to pick up next. We saw this foal and his mom on our way to the dump yesterday. I took pictures of him and some other foals in the same field. I suppose I'll have to paint some more babies!
Donna

"One Up, One Down!"
The story behind this painting began long ago. I was taking care of a little old lady in her home. She had a friend named, Lucy. Lucy had a daughter who went into the hospital to have her appendics out. When the doctors administered the anesthetic, Lucy's daughter died instantly. She was allergic to the medicine.

Well, to continue on, when my Robert had his neck fused, I couldn't get the story of Lucy's daughter out of my mind. I sat in the waiting room alone, while Robert was in surgery, and I was wondering if I'd ever see him alive again.

While I waited, I stared into an aquarium and these goldfish kept swiming up and down, up and down. Finally they got my attention and I took out my sketch book and sat drawing them until the doctor came out and told me my Robert was ok and he'd come through the surgery just fine. So these fish were my life line during that awful wait. I think they were sympathizing with me as they stared at me so intently.

Who knows if they know what we're feeling or not? It's very possible they can sense more than we give them credit for. I know I was certainly thankful for their presence that day.
donna

"Bright Eyed Girl"
She sure is a bright eyed girl. My horse Class was posing for me again! I dreamed up the sunset, the blaze on her face, the light that's washing over her body. And the clouds in the sky.

She'll be for sale on My Ebay Store tonight and on my website for viewing along with the other horse aceo cards I do. Starting price bid on ebay is $9.99.
Thanks for watching!
donna

"Black Horse in the Montana Sunset"
On the Equine Art Guild, of which I'm a member, we discuss a lot of times, how to paint a black horse. It isn't easy to paint a pure black, or a pure white animal. The trick is to keep them looking black, or white, without letting them look like a blob. This was my attempt at the black horse painting. I had to up the level of difficulty by putting this horse in a sunset.

I guess I'll go post him onMy Ebay Store now and see if anyone likes him.
donna

"Pony of the Plains"
She's a Medicine Hat pony, watching her Blackfoot warrior walk toward her. In her heart, she's always ready for the next battle or the next hunt. She runs strong and true with eagerness in her heart. She's posted on ebay right now, do a seller search for jackmorgan and you'll find my store. If you're the first person who bids on her, you'll win an ACEO portrait of your own pet. She's $9.99 on auction and $14.99 with a buy it now button.
donna